We’ve already seen a few examples of brands dabbling in VR shopping, such as Vera Bradley, Alibaba, and even the mother-of-all online retailers, Amazon, but no physical retail companies the size of Walmart have stepped into the arena. However, according to a recent report from Bloomberg, that could all be about to change.

It appears that the retail giant has recently filed for patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that would entail a “virtual show room” and digital replica of a Walmart store, including a platform for shoppers to explore via the use of VR headsets.

The patents even cover things like grabbing items from virtual shelves into a digital shopping cart in front of them. And once you buy something in VR, you actually would have bought it in real life as it’s shipped to you automatically from a distribution center. Basically, it’s just like shopping online, but everything is represented in 3D space instead on a flat computer screen or mobile device.

“Walmart knows that its stores are too big and unwieldy for people,” Zoe Leavitt, a managing analyst at patent researcher CB Insights, told Bloomberg. Leavitt then goes on to say that so far the company has filed for more than a dozen VR-related patents over the years.

What do you think of this news? Is VR shopping you want to become a thing? Let us know down in the comments below!

The Starry Expanse Project is a dedicated fan effort to remake Riven: The Sequel to Myst in real-time 3D. Riven was released over 20 years ago and is one of the all-time classic point-and-click adventure games. Developed by Cyan Worlds, it’s often regarded as one of the best in the genre. Now The Starry Expanse Project, more recently known as realRiven, is a full remake of that classic game using modern technology.

Recently, the team announced that realRiven, when it releases, will have full VR support. The blog post reads:

“We’re very excited to finally announce that we are officially developing realRiven for virtual reality… Simply, the tools for developing a game in VR have become more ubiquitous and easy to use, and our team now has several members with experience in shipping titles for VR. We have the talent and the technical barriers are no longer an issue, so we’re pleased to make this announcement and we hope you’re as excited as we are.”

Interestingly enough, the original creators of both Myst and Riven have also moved onto VR projects as well. Most notably, Obduction, which was an adventure game heavily inspired by Myst that released with optional VR support two years ago. Their next project, Firmament, is still in early WIP stages.

Let us know what you think of the news down in the comments below! What are some other classic non-VR games you’d love to see remade in VR?

My learning adventure in Israel included a couple of months of exploration and familiarization with the local innovative ecosystem, including VR/AR technologies. My observations suggested Israel has the potential to become one of the world’s largest hubs for Augmented Reality.

Israel is already one of the largest technology ecosystems in the world. With the largest number of startups per capita, Israel is home to more than 2,000 startups founded in the last decade. In 2017, Startup Genome, a report that ranks the world’s largest startup ecosystems, ranked Tel Aviv 6th, just after San Francisco, New York, London, Boston, and Beijing. A great number of Israel-originated startup projects succeeded in the U.S. market and large American companies acquire dozens of startups every year.

Why Augmented Reality?

Historically, Israel’s strategic technological advantage relied on cyber-security and computer vision. Two vital components for creating an AR experience are vision and understanding the environment in real-time and having strength in these categories is essential to any ecosystem aimed at seizing an advantage for their next computing platform. More recently, startups have emerged from Israel with integrated vision-based systems including drones, robotics and AR. This existing tech expertise by local founders in computer vision systems can soon establish Israel as the world’s largest AR hub.

Here are four reasons that’s likely to happen:

Talent

One of the most extensive training grounds for nurturing young Israeli talent is military service. The Israeli armed forces are considered one of the most efficient in the world because of the government’s continuous investment in cutting-edge tech R&D. This provides young non-combat army recruits an opportunity to develop their technical skills using expensive R&D facilities. Israeli military command invests heavily in computer vision research which is utilized in aviation and video surveillance. Graduates of elite intelligence units such as 8200 and 9900 employ the latest technical skills in cyber-security, artificial intelligence, and computer vision.

Also, Israeli universities play a significant role in developing high-skilled technical talent. For instance, Technion University, ranked 75 in the world in Computer Science, is renowned for its training program that prepares experts in software development, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity. One of the most prominent labs in the university is Technion Vision and Image Sciences Laboratory, which researches computer vision systems, 3D imaging, and real-time image processing. Other well known university labs in Israel include Tel Aviv University’s Robotics, Computer Vision and Geometric Computing Lab, and Ben Gurion University’s Interdisciplinary Computer Vision Lab. Weizmann Institute of Science, ranked #104 in the world and #6 in Asia, is also known or its Computer Vision & Graphics Lab which conducts research on object recognition and 3D reconstruction.

These academic institutions are an important signal of Israel’s commitment to creating an auspicious environment for nurturing talent in the country to tackle major technical challenges.

Corporate involvement

Given the abundance of talent in the country and strong expertise in computer vision, many international corporations and startups decided to open AR R&D centers

Today, HTC announced that the official Vive Wireless Adapter will retail for $300 and is set to launch on September 24th.

Pre-orders for the device will go live on September 5th, for US customers they’ll be available at Amazon, Best Buy, Microsoft, NewEgg, and directly from Vive. The Vive Wireless Adapter will be compatible with both the standard Vive and Vive Pro, however, you’ll need to buy an additional kit to attach it to your Pro, which is on top of the Vive Pro headset (which is already $800 even if you have an original Vive now, or a whopping $1,400 if you want the entire 2.0 system.)

When we went hands-on with the Vive Wireless Adapter back at CES 2018 earlier this year, we came away impressed. In comparison to the TPCast, it seems to have a better weight balance and feels less noticeable when worn — even if it looks a bit silly. The battery pack is nice and discreet and the signal quality is excellent.

While playing DOOM VFR, an extremely fast-paced and intense VR shooter, we didn’t notice any issues and were able to freely move around an open space while gunning down demons.

This was an admittedly brief demo, but we got to try it again in four-player roomscale multiplayer via Arizona Sunshine and that was even more impressive.

According to the HTC blog post, installation of the Vive Wireless Adapter “occurs in minutes” via a PCI-e card and attaching a sensor from the PC to a broadcast adapter. There’s a 6-meter range from the broadcast point with a 150-degree field of view on the sensor.

The 60Ghz band is powered by Intel’s WiGig specification and DisplayLink’s XR codec, which reportedly adds up to “high performance with hours of battery life.” According to official specs, the battery is expected to last 2.5 hours:

While using the Wireless Adapter, it’s powered by a single HTC QC 3.0 PowerBank, which is included with all Adapter orders, but you can buy additional ones from the official Vive website.

Additionally, anyone that buys a Vive Wireless Adapter will also receive a complimentary two-month trial for Viveport Subscription, which includes access to nearly 500 different VR titles.

What do you think of the news? Do you plan on getting a Vive Wireless Adapter? Let us know down in the comments below!

After months of silence Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown finally has a confirmed release date: January 18th, 2019, according to PlayStation Europe on Twitter. While unconfirmed at this time, that likely means a release date of January 17th, 2019 in the US.

We originally went hands-on with Ace Combat 7 on PSVR almost two years ago at this point. While the VR support for the game is only a handful of missions the last we heard, they were an impressive display of how expertly crafted the series’ aerial action felt. If ever there were a game series perfectly suited for VR headsets, this would be it. Hopefully all of this extra development time (it was originally slated for 2017, then delayed to 2018, then hidden in a dark corner only to be let out finally again today) means there are more VR missions than originally planned.

Check out the new trailer for lots of glimpses at the story mode, which includes a ton of characters and voice acting. Frankly, a lot more than I expected for a video game about jet planes:

As far as we can tell there’s no mention of VR at all in that trailer, which is disappointing, but the PSN page still mentioned a “VR Mode” so there isn’t anything to worry about on that front hopefully. Hopefully it ends up being more robust than Gran Turismo Sport’s limited tease, though.

Worth noting is that Ace Combat 7 is reportedly coming to PC as well, but it’s unlikely the VR support will be coming along with it — the VR mode seems to be a partnership between Bandai Namco and Sony directly. But maybe it’s only a timed deal, like Batman Arkham VR or Skyrim VR.

What do you think of the news? Are you planning on playing Ace Combat 7 on PSVR next year? Let us know down in the comments below!

Yes, tabletop gaming is very much still a thing. But just because it’s been around forever doesn’t mean it’s not keeping up with the latest tech. This is what video game giant Wargaming are hoping to prove when they start demoing their latest offering at Gamescom in Germany this week. WoT AR Spectate is a Mixed Reality take on their popular title “World of Tanks” (WoT) which boasts over 140 million players worldwide.

It’s really a proof of concept at this stage according to Wargaming Special Project Lead Matt Daly, who says there are no immediate plans for a formal launch. Yet it’s a very nice-looking proof of concept that opens up all sorts of intriguing possibilities for future use.

“Nobody we’re aware of us achieving 60fps PC GPU settings in super stable AR,” says Daly, who explains that although his team has been only been working on this project for the past six months, it wasn’t the first time they dabbled in Mixed Reality.

Their first MR project used Google Tango and Microsoft HoloLens to bring a rare digital tank from their game to a real-life exhibit at the Tank Museum at Bovington, UK. They then took the learnings from that process to try and make something that was – at least in principle – scalable and accessible to the general public.

In a nutshell, the way WoT AR Spectate currently works is that an iPad is connected to PC functions like a 3D mouse. The PC does all rendering and sends that data back to iPad as video. Using ARKit for iOS, iPad sends its constant position/orientation to the PC while an in-game camera in WoT matches that iPad’s position/orientation, and sends what it sees back to iPad as video.

Predictably, however, there were some serious technical challenges in getting that complex architecture working:

“We were attempting to do something pretty exotic, with tech not necessarily designed for this purpose. Since we’re offloading all GPU & viewer/player control processes to the PC, there was an inherent delay in that process which caused noticeable difference between reality and a sort of perceivably delayed set of AR objects & content, which was disorienting. Besides tons of local network and packet transfer optimization, we then also artificially delayed the iPads RGB camera to have the same (40-70ms) delay as the in-game feed appearing on the iPad screen. The end result is an experience is extremely stable, amazingly polished, and both sides of reality are dancing together instead of fighting each other,” says Daly.

The resulting full-blown 3D battle can unfold right onto your coffee table, but as fun as that sounds, the more exciting aspects of the technology are its applications beyond gaming. From eSports match observation to historical digital recreation (Wargaming just signed a deal with the History Channel to produce some of those) having an interactive second screen anywhere is a proposition that could potentially catch on as a consumer product.

“Content creators are going to go nuts with this stuff,” Daly predicts. “Visual believability is such a massively

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate.

Now that NVIDIA’s Gamescom press conference is over, we finally have the details on their brand new RTX 20 series of GPUs. Touted as the greatest leap in graphics processing ever, NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang was on-stage to show off the power of the new RTX line.

You can read the full rundown on the RTX 2080Ti, 2080, and 2070 right here, as well as a summary of what Turing and the embedded VirtualLink connector could mean for VR going forward. So now that we know the price points and specs — what do you think?

What does NVIDIA’s RTX 20 series mean for VR? Is this as huge of a leap forward as the company wants to think it is with its impressive real-time ray tracing and incredible visual fidelity? Will it actually yield tangible results for current-generation VR technology, or is this mostly for future VR tech?

Let us know what you think of the new NVIDIA RTX 20 series down below and tell us if you plan on gettign one. They’re open for pre-order now and will be available on and around September 20th, 2018.

Fire an AK47 while trapped inside a shark-filled tornado in this immersive VR gore-fest. In terms of sheer ridiculousness, very few franchises are able to hold a candle to the Sharknado series. Since the release of the first installment back in 2013, Syfy channel’s made-for-tv disaster comedy has spawned an incredible FIVE sequels, each filled

Fatten your digital wallet the easy way using this Pokemon GO-style AR experience. Whatever your opinion on the longevity of cryptocurrencies may be, there’s no denying the relatively recent wave of digital assets have become immensely popular. Specific brands, such as Bitcoin and Litecoin, have had significant impact on modern businesses, providing an exciting, albeit

Viewers beware, because for today’s livestream we’re venturing into the depths of The Exorcist: Legion VR, a terrifying virtual reality horror experience from the creators of A Chair in a Room. Now that all five chapters are out on Steam that means that the entire Exorcist VR experience is ready to be enjoyed — that is, if screaming and cowering in fear is your idea of enjoyment.

The Exorcist VR has been released over the last few months as a five-part episodic series. Each chapter is $5 a piece, or you can buy the entire bundle for about $24. When played all together, the full series is around two and a half hours total. The PSVR version of the game is still waiting on the fourth and fifth chapters and it will run you closer to $30 for the whole thing over there.

We’ll be livestreaming The Exorcist VR on HTC Vive today and monitoring chat using OVRdrop while in VR. The stream will be starting at approximately 2:00 PM PT and we’ll aim to last for about an hour or so — probably just the first one or two chapters. We’ll be livestreaming directly to the UploadVR Facebook page. You can see the full stream embedded right here down below once it’s up:

Embedded livestream coming soon

You can see our archived streams all in this one handy Livestream playlist over on the official UploadVR YouTube channel (which you should totally subscribe to by the way). All future and current streams will be on Facebook, which you can see a list of here.

Let us know which games you want us to livestream next and what you want to see us do, specifically, in this or other VR games. Comment with feedback down below!